There are those who think that there is a special relationship between certain numbers and certain people. This space holds no such numerological views and no opinion about what either mathematicians or mystics think to be perfect numbers. Its writer does, however, have a special affinity with the number seven. He was born on the seventh day of the seventh month at 7 a.m. The house in which he lives bears is numbered 7 in the street.

Although we now live mainly with decimal measurements, there are still seven days in the week and seven openings in the human head. To pursue the matter, the mediaeval universities taught the seven liberal arts, the Eternal City was founded upon its seven hills. There are, traditionally, seven deadly sins and seven cardinal virtues. And Shakespeare identified the seven "ages of man". Need one expatiate further? I live happily as a member of what might be called the international Group of Seven.

By the way, the numerals in my birth year add up to 14, the first multiple of 7. That year was neither 1904 nor 1940. It was, I am told, a good year for Baron Rothschild's Pinot Noir.

It was through the seven cranial apertures that the ancients thought evil spirits (now micro-organisms) could enter the body. Thus, the traditional anointing of those parts. It made access and egress a slippery slope. Poison poured into the ears was thought to be especially deadly.

Remember Hamlet's father. Saying "Bless you" when someone sneezes recalls the old belief that to sneeze or to cough is to expel or repel an evil agent in, or seeking admission to, the body. The blessing was to discourage its re)entry. Modern health warnings also specify the eyes and the mouth as particularly vulnerable to germs on unwashed hands.

The seven days of the week need no mention here. Nor do the seven traditional Christian sacraments. The seven liberal arts, however, are of interest to those who are concerned for what is now a disappearing liberal education. They were called 'liberal' because they were thought essential to basic education of 'free' persons. Beyond them, Theology, Medicine and Law each concerned a professional discipline and a limitation of that freedom.

The first three liberal arts, called collectively the Trivium, were Grammar (the correct use of language), Rhetoric (the art of persuasive speech) and Logic (the art of thinking and arguing clearly). The next four, the Quadrivium, were Arithmetic (counting or accounting), Geometry (the measuring and relationship of shapes or forms), Music (the combining of sounds) and Astronomy (understanding the movement of the celestial bodies).

It has also been said that the most important cities in the world have been built on a series of hills, most often seven . The seven hills of the Eternal City, Rome, top the list. The Palatine hill was the site of the oldest settlement there in 753 B.C.

The Capitoline was the ancient religious centre and, hence, the citadel of the city and the Quirinal the residence of Romulus, the founding father, and much later the home of the kings and presidents of modern Italy.

The Viminal hill, named for its original spinney of willow trees (Latin 'viminia'), the Esquiline (site of Nero's Golden House and 125 acres of pleasure gardens), the Caelian (now called the Lateran, where Rome's cathedral church stands) and the Aventine (once the proletarian district, now gentrified) complete the list. Ancient Romans met and traded in the valleys between the hills. Across the Tiber was the Vatican hill, considered to be outside the city. It featured a sports stadium and a cemetery.

The seven mortal sins were so called because, cultivated and unrepented, they kill the life of the soul. Rationalised now by some by some as "alternative life styles", they are listed as pride, envy, anger, sloth, avarice, gluttony and lust. "That's just the way I am. Don't sweat it" is the argument of the immature and the sociopath. Others recognise the nourishing roots of SIN (not one's S.I.N.). Sin is basically an acrostic for "self indulgence now", the result of which is not always, or even usually, pretty or a source of pride.

The seven virtues (Latin 'virtus' = 'strength') are the Scriptural faith, hope and love, supplemented by the Greek philosophical prudence (wise decision making), justice (right social relationships), temperance (moderation in all things) and fortitude (brave confrontation of the inevitable). "Think on these things". Otherwise, abandon hope., said the sages. The unexamined life is not worth living.

Shakespeare's Seven Ages of Man are set out in Jacques's speech, "All the world's a stage". That always evokes the memory of Nathan Cohen, sometime theatre critic for the Toronto Star. "All the stage is his world", said that paper. The seven life stagers are 1) the infant, 'mewling and puking". 2) the schoolboy, "creeping unwillingly to school". 3) the sighing lover. writing poems 4) the soldier "full of strange oaths, quick in quarrel". 5) The middle aged man "in fair, round belly". 6) the lean and slippered senior "with spectacles on nose" and, last of all, 7) second childhood, "sans teeth, sans every thing".

The slogan of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre was "Totus mundus agit histrionem" - "The whole world does what the actor does". 'Histrionics' now means 'overthe top activity'. Come to think of it, a world without Hollywood's amoral and dysfunctional 'stars' would be a better place. To name one's children after them is the ultimate vulgarity. None of those unhappy, confused or drugged people has exactly enriched either our lives or, via North America's film 'culture', that of the world.

History and literature have other notable 'sevens'. The seven Words from the Cross were once the basis for Good Friday homilies in the churches. The children whose parents read to them the story of Sinbad the Sailor heard about his seven voyages. Others heard about forgiving someone seven (or seventy) times seven.

Teilhard de Chardin, the Jesuit philosopher-scientist who hoped to deliver us from the literal tyranny of the Book of Genesis, said that when we rediscover that ethic mankind will again have discovered fire.